This week I want to take a second to congratulate Ryan Miner of the Loaded Box Podcast as he was the only contributor who’s bargain selection last week provided any sort of positive return to your daily fantasy lineup.

Miner’s selection of Larry Fitzgerald produced 22 points on FanDuel while the remaining five contributors COMBINED for a total of 34 points. That’s less than seven points per player, including a ZERO from our celebrity guest picker, who will remain anonymous in this article (kidding, it was Anthony Cervino). For those wondering, he has been fired/replaced and will not be allowed back until he buys a round of drinks for each Loaded Box Podcast contributor.

While I don’t think Week 9 is setup for you to have complete faith in a bargain quarterback, this article is dedicated to possible bargain plays at each position, so I’ll play by the rules and give you a guy who has a decent chance or notching his first 20-point fantasy outing of the season. Sam Darnold faces a struggling Dolphins’ team that has been getting torched on the defensive side of the ball recently. Their inability to stop the run has given opposing team’s offenses the luxury of remaining balanced on offense, basically neutralizing what would be Miami’s top strength on defense – edge rushers. Due to this and the lack of productivity at the cornerback position outside of Xavien Howard, the Dolphins have allowed over 33 points per game in their last five games, including 42 last week to the Texans. In that game against Houston, the Dolphins’ defense forced just four incompletions to Deshaun Watson, marking the second consecutive game they allowed the opposing team’s QB to miss on just four passes as Detroit’s Matthew Stafford did the same thing to them the week prior. Darnold had a rough outing last week against the Bears, throwing for just over 150 yards and a single touchdown, but should face a much easier challenge this week. If you’ve invested high dollar amounts into RB & WR this week and find yourself needing a cheap QB, give Darnold the green light.

Stop your damn scrolling and hear me out on this one. Cleveland is playing against the Chiefs this week, which means they’ll inevitably have their most negative game script of the entire season. Duke Johnson, believe it or not, was a very high-end RB2 with weekly upside back in 2017. I understand this year he has been unimpressive, but this matchup right here could be his redemption. I fully expect him to be mega involved in this one, and should rack up the PPR points. So go ahead, break the bank on Todd Gurley this week, because your RB2 is playing for pennies.

Miller is coming off back-to-back games with at least 100 rushing yards and a touchdown. Now he gets to go up against, statistically, one of the league’s worst run defenses. I feel like this “price point” (Ben’s favorite phrase) is some kind of mistake. The makers saw Miller and were like this guy is washed, just put him somewhere in the $6,000 range (FanDuel). No one will even notice him there, but I see you Lamar. We all know it’s Miller Time. No free ads.

Everyone will probably be trying to get fellow teammate D.J. Moore in their lineups this week after last week’s five-catch, 90-yard performance. All season long Funchess has been shut down by teams with a good-to-great cornerback. This week, with Tampa Bay coming to town, should be a get-right game for Funchess who is the true WR1 for the Panthers. Let everyone else use Moore while you reap the benefits Funchess provides against this dumpster-fire secondary.

In a world where you want Todd Gurley, Adam Thielen and Alvin Kamara in your lineups, finding these GPP plays are important. Smith is sitting at 5.1k on FanDuel and 4.2k on DraftKings and fits that billing perfectly. When it comes to chasing high-upside GPP plays, you look for the super high over/under totals on top of path to targets/touches. The Saints/Rams game an O/U point total of 57.5, the perfect spot for that. He also has a clear path to being the WR2 on this Saints’ offense. Ted Ginn is on IR, Cameron Meredith and Austin Carr have taken back seats to Smith – who’s snap count has increased in every game since Week 5. Throw Smith in your lineups and ride this GPP play to cash money.

This has to be shocking to most DFS & fantasy football players, but Jordan Reed is somehow healthy through the season’s first eight weeks. Given my track record I may be jinxing him, but I don’t see a better bargain play at tight end than Reed this week. Despite not having double-digit fantasy points since Week 1, Reed saw a season-high 12 targets last week against the Giants and will likely see a heavy workload once again this week against a Falcons’ defense that ranks 30th in fantasy points allowed against the pass. For how legit the Falcons have been offensively this season, scoring 27 points per game, they’ve been equally unimpressive on the defensive side of the ball allowing over 30 per game. This game may turn into a bit of a shootout, and in the event it does, Reed should once again lead the Redskins in targets en route to a solid performance as a bargain play in your DFS lineup.

For more daily fantasy stacks, bargains and advice be sure to check out the latest episode of the Loaded Box Podcast!